For the past several days, The Today Show has been hyping an "exclusive interview" with Jerry Sandusky set to air Monday morning. In this interview, The Today Show says, the convicted child rapist will "speak out for the first time since he went to prison." Sounds like NBC landed a(n ethically questionable) scoop right? Not so much, except for the ethically questionable part. Instead of interviewing Sandusky themselves, NBC is instead airing an excerpt of conservative filmmaker John Ziegler's documentary, The Framing of Joe Paterno.

Ziegler, perhaps best known for his David Foster Wallace-documented career as a radio talk show host and his conspiratorial documentaries Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted and Blocking the Path to 9/11, has long been critical of how the press covered the Sandusky case. In July 2012, he published a 4,800 word screed attacking the media's coverage of former Penn State Coach Joe Paterno in which he acknowledges Sandusky "engaged in illegal behavior" but also asserts his opinion that witness Mike McQueary saw "botched 'grooming'" in Penn State's shower and not a sexual assault.

And now, to hype his new documentary, Ziegler is appearing on the Today Show to show excerpts of and discuss his interview with Sandusky. So, NBC is airing an interview that's essentially a commercial for a film made by a someone who has previously made "documentaries" blaming 9/11 on Bill Clinton and the media for Obama's election. It's also worth noting that even Joe Paterno's son, Scott Paterno, wants nothing to do with the film, tweeting, "Why would we oppose Ziegler's analysis if it credibly exonerated Dad? We oppose it b/c it seeks to do so with a false narrative."

Ziegler-related decisions aside, the network had already drawn criticism for the interview. At least two child advocacygroups have called for NBC to cancel the segment.